View showing a model of Los Angeles as it appeared in 1850. Looking northeast, the layout of the new city can clearly be seen with the Los Angeles Plaza located in the lower left-center. The large white structure to the left of the Plaza is the Old Plaza Church. The two streets running from bottom of photo to the Plaza are Main Street on the left and Los Angeles Street on the right. Alameda Street runs from the lower right corner diagonally toward the lower center of photo. The L.A. River can be seen running from the lower-right diagonally to the center of the photo, turns left and disappears behind the mountain. At that point the Arroyo Seco can be seen at its confluence with the LA River. The tall majestic San Gabriel Mountains stand in the far background. Vineyards blanket the area between the City and the L.A. River (lower right). The large dark spot in the lower-right of the photo is El Aliso, the historic landmark of the indigenous Tongva people who once lived in the Indian Village of Yangna at that location, adjacent to the Los Angeles River.
Historical Notes
The City of Los Angeles originated right here. Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles was founded on September 4, 1781 by a group of Spanish pobladeros (settlers), consisting of 11 families – 44 men, women and children. They were originally led by Fernando Javier Rivera y Moncada (1725-1781), and accompanied by a contingent of soldiers who had set out from the nearby Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to establish a pueblo along the banks of the Porciúncula River at the Indian village of Yangna.
In 1841, Los Angeles’ first census shows a population of 141. California’s first discovery of gold a year later (1842) at Placerita Canyon, near Mission San Fernando, prompted LA’s first population boom. By 1850, Los Angeles' population reached 1,610.
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